It was a true bummer when the candid, it’s-funny-because-it’s-painfully-real late night thinking jam that was FXX’s “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell” was cancelled at the end of 2013. But the San Francisco-based comic is still slinging truths about race, culture, gender and more. He’s just doing it at a stage near you, like at the South Beach Comedy Festival tomorrow, rather than in your living room.

“It’s been great. It was a little scary, because I hadn’t done that much standup, so it was a little nervewracking,” Bell says. “Being onstage, there’s a legitimate connection that you don’t have on television. There’s a thing that happens in that room, an element that doesn’t translate to the next city. If I’m in Bloomington, Indiana or in Portland, Oregon or Denver, there’s something to the show that only the people in that room will ever know, and it’s not going to be saved anywhere. It’s literally about creating a ‘You had to be there’ experience. Someone will tell you about it and you’ll say ‘I’ don’t understand!’ ‘You had to be there!'”

Bell’s been known to personalize his performances, within reason – He once wrote an “Avatar” joke because a fan asked if he had anything to say about it. He did, although ‘I don’t always take the homework assignment. Sometimes (there’s a suggestion) and I’m like ‘I don’t really wanna talk about that!’ But it’s worth it if there’s something to talk about. I’m not saying I’m Jay-Z, always spitting off the dome. But nobody knows how much preparation went into (a bit) if it’s good. It’s definitely made me appreciate the intimacy of the audience. I can go anywhere I wanna go. I follow my nose. On TV it’s very strictly regimented. In standup you can say ‘I was just thinking about this a half-hour ago and now I’m saying this out loud.’ If it’s not funny, you just keep it moving.”
Regimented or not, there was something satisfyingly off-the-cuff about the experience of “Totally Biased,” produced by Chris Rock and originating on FX in 2012 before moving to sister station FXX for its second and final season. Bell and his incredibly diverse writing staff regularly ruminated on subjects that might register a joke or two on other late night shoes but which were front and center. Witness regular segments like “Prominent Black Lady News,” complete with catchy jingle, created “because we sort of realized that no one else was talking about black women on TV. People don’t usually do that unless the story is something critical. It’s not about doing cool things.”

The show became the go-to place to look for commentary about whatever jacked-up thing had happened in the news that day if it had to do with the curiosities of race and prejudice. Bell says he began to feel the “pressure of that. The great thing is that there should be so many different perspectives from white straight men on TV — Jimmy Fallon, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert. The obvious thing — the unfortunate thing — was that it was me and Arsenio at that point. And there are a lot more perspectives than me and Arsenio. There was some pressure there, of thinking ‘What is the funniest angle’ and not being a bummer.”

Nobody wants to get cancelled, of course, but Bell thinks that “the cancellation created a situation where people said ‘I can’t believe it’s gone! I watched it all the time!,'” he says, laughing. “No you didn’t! But I’m glad you’re noticing it’s gone. (The cancellation) gave it a life that it would not have if it was still on the air. I get to be a part of the black folktale about The Man not being able to handle my truth bombs.”

Bell says he’s heard that, thanks to the Internet, that “Totally Biased” lives on in classrooms, as “I regularly hear from teachers that they use my clips in their classes. They’re sad it’s gone, and they want more.’ For me that’s part of the legacy of it, passing those clips around. It has a much bigger life.”

One segment that took on a life of its own was Bell’s interview with comedian Sarah Silverman, who came on the show to address comments by “Totally Biased” writer and comic Guy Branum in his “No More Mr. Nice Gay” segment. He’d made snarky criticism of anti-gay jokes at Comedy Central’s roast of James Franco, and piled on comments from the roast about Silverman’s age (because being 42, female and in show business is apparently an affront or something.) Bell had previously criticized Silverman for what he thought were racist bits in her film “Jesus Is Magic.” The conversation, ultimately conciliatory, exposed the problems that come from making your reputation as a no-holds-barred comedian if you can’t take it when those holds aren’t barred against you.

“I think she grasps it more than most people. And it’s hard to grasp it on live TV in front of people. I had talked to her and she gets why someone like myself would have issues. Also, some of her jokes were great jokes. They just hurt my feelings. I can even laugh at a joke that hurts my feelings, but it does hurt my feelings. More than most comics she gets that people are affected by that, because she’s affected by the things said about her. There are plenty of straight male comedians that are saying things that could be considered racist but they’re not going to be attacked on several levels. Jokes about their age, they don’t think to do that.”

Bell himself has never been a part of what he calls “the roast culture. I would never do (one.) I would get my feelings hurt. I said (to Silverman) ‘How do you do it?’ And she said ‘We say mean things and then go home and can’t get out of bed for two days.’ I said ‘Yeah, that’s why I wouldn’t do it.’ I understand that this is the game that we’re playing. that you say as many funny things as you can, but there are still consequences. Two things can be true – she likes to say mean things about other people and still sometimes think people step over the line, because she’s human. We have the ability to have contradictory thoughts in our heads. You do understand that you’re being a hypocrite.”

It’s not that Bell never gets things wrong. He says that there have been times, for instance, that “the trans community didn’t think we did a great job and reached out to let me know. The thing is that a big part of being an ally is having your course corrected. In my act I talk about those issues in a more personal way, about my perspective when I was young and where I am not with it. And I know I don’t know what the heck I’m talking about. The thing that’s most interesting to me, that nobody reached out to Lenny Bruce when he did things about how to relate to your colored friends. Nobody could do that. Now, if you want, on the Internet, people can reach out to you. You can not listen, but I’m prepared to. We might not always agree but I’ll listen.”

And listening means doing so with your mouth closed.

“I think that’s something every white person needs to practice. Many white people don’t know if that’s a thing, if there’s racism because one time they had a black friend,” he says. “Close your mouth and nod yes as a black person tells you about what’s happened to them, and then go to the white people meeting and talk about it.”